• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.35-43
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• 2005

Feedwater heaters of many nuclear power plants have recently experienced wall thinning damage, which will increase as operating time progresses. As it is judged that the wall thinning damages have generated due to local fluid behavior around the impingement baffle installed in downstream of the high pressure turbine extraction steam line to avoid colliding directly with the tubes, numerical analyses using PHOENICS code were performed for two models with original clogged impingement baffle and modified multi-hole impingement baffle. To identify the relation between wall thinning and fluid behavior, the local velocity components in x-, y-, and z-directions based on the numerical analysis for the model with the clogged impingement baffle were compared with the wall thickness data by ultrasonic test. From the comparison of the numerical analysis results and the wall thickness data, the local velocity component only in the y-direction, and not in the x- and z-direction, was analogous to the wall thinning configuration. From the result of the numerical analysis for the modified impingement baffle to mitigate the shell wall thinning, it was identified that the shell wall thinning may be controlled by the reduction of the local velocity in the y-direction.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.20 no.1 s.69
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• pp.55-61
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of circumferential location of local wall thinning defect on the collapse behavior of an elbow. Thus, the present study conducts three-dimensional finite element analysis on the 90-degree elbow containing a local wall thinning at intrados, crown and extrados of bend region and evaluates the collapse moment of wall thinned elbow under various thinning shapes and loading conditions. Combined internal pressure and bending moment are considered as an applied load. The internal pressure of $0\~20MPa$ and both closing and opening mode bending are employed. The results of analysis show that the reduction in collapse moment of the elbow by local wall thinning is more significant for a defect locating at crown than for a defect locating at intrados or at extrados. Also, the effect of internal pressure on the collapse moment of wall thinned elbow depends on the circumferential location of thinning defect and applied bending mode.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.30 no.5 s.248
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• pp.533-542
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• 2006

In order to assess the integrity of pipes with local thinning area, the plastic strain as well as the elastic strain at the root of thinned region are required particularly when fluctuating load is applied to the pipe. For estimating elastic-plastic strain at local wall thinning area in a straight pipe under tensile load, an estimation model with idealized fully circumferential constant depth wall thinning area is proposed. Based on the compatibility and equilibrium equations a nonlinear estimation equation, from which local elastic-plastic strain can be determined as a function of pipe/defect geometry, material and the applied strain was derived. Estimation results are compared with those from detailed elastic-plastic finite element analysis, which shows good agreements. Noting that practical wall thinning in nuclear piping has not only a circular shape but also a finite circumferential length, the proposed solution for the ideal geometry is extended based on two-dimensional and three-dimensional numerical analysis of pipes with circular wall thinning.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.931-950
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• 2016

Ratcheting deformation of pressurized Z2CND18.12N stainless steel $90^{\circ}$ elbow pipe with local wall thinning subjected to constant internal pressure and reversed bending was studied using finite element analysis. Chen-Jiao-Kim (CJK) kinematic hardening model, which was used to simulate ratcheting behavior of pressurized $90^{\circ}$ elbow pipe with local wall thinning at extrados, flanks and intrados, was implemented into finite element software ANSYS. The local wall thinning was located at extrados, flanks and intrados of $90^{\circ}$ elbow pipe, whose geometry was rectangular cross-section. The effect of depth, axial length and circumferential angle of local wall thinning at extrados, flanks and intrados on the ratcheting behaviors of $90^{\circ}$ elbow pipe were studied in this paper. Three-dimensional elastic-plastic analysis with Chen-Jiao-Kim (CJK) kinematic hardening model was carried out to evaluate structural ratcheting behaviors. The results indicated that ratcheting strain was generated mainly along the hoop direction, while axial ratcheting strain was relatively small.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.39-45
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• 2003

The failure mode of a pipe due to local wall thinning is increasingly more attention in the nuclear power plant industry. To assess the integrity of locally wall thinned pipe, it is necessary to perform many simulations under various conditions. Because the modeling for locally wall thinned elbow is more complicated than that of straight pipe the efficient modeling method for finite element analysis is necessary. In this study, the more simple efficient modeling method of three-dimensional finite element analysis for locally wall thinned elbow has been suggested and verified. And using the method, the failure mode of local wall thinned elbows that have different thinning lengths and circumferential angles is evaluated. From the results, we concluded that the collapse load of elbows has been decreased by the increase of wall thinning shape factors such as thinning lengths and circumferential angles.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.9
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• pp.2119-2129
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• 2020

Flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC), liquid droplet impingement erosion (LDIE), cavitation and flashing can cause continuous wall-thinning in nuclear secondary pipes. In order to prevent pipe rupture events resulting from the wall-thinning, most NPPs (nuclear power plants) implement their management programs, which include periodic thickness inspection using UT (ultrasonic test). Meanwhile, it is well known in field experiences that the thickness measurement errors (or deviations) are often comparable with the amount of thickness reduction. Because of these errors, it is difficult to estimate wall-thinning exactly whether the significant thinning has occurred in the inspected components or not. In the previous study, the authors presented an approximate estimation procedure as the first step for thickness measurement deviations at each inspected component and the statistical & quantitative characteristics of the measurement deviations using plant experience data. In this study, statistical significance was quantified for the current methods used for wall-thinning determination. Also, the authors proposed new estimation procedures for determining local wall-thinning to overcome the weakness of the current methods, in which the proposed procedure is based on analysis of variance (ANOVA) method using subgrouping of measured thinning values at all measurement grids. The new procedures were also quantified for their statistical significance. As the results, it is confirmed that the new methods have better estimation confidence than the methods having used until now.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.1063-1071
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• 2008

This paper provides a failure pressure evaluation model for local wall-thinned elbows. In this study, parametric finite element analyses are performed on the elbows containing local wall-thinning defect at their intrados and extrados, and the failure pressures are obtained from the analysis results by applying a local failure criterion that was validated by real-scale pipe tests. An evaluation model including the effects of thinning depth, length, circumferential angle, thinning location, and elbow geometries on the failure pressure is derived based on the evaluated failure pressures. The proposed model agrees well with the results of finite element analyses and reasonably estimates the dependence of failure pressure on the wall-thinning dimensions and elbow geometries. Also, the comparison with experimental data demonstrates that the proposed evaluation model can accurately predict the failure pressure of local wall-thinned elbows.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.66-72
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• 2002

Fracture behaviors of pipes with local wall thinning are very important for the integrity of nuclear power plant. However, effects of local wall thinning on strength and fracture behaviors of piping system were not well studied. Acoustic emission(AE) has been widely used in various fields because of its extreme sensitivity, dynamic detection ability and location of growing defects. In this study, we investigated failure modes of locally wall thinned pipes and AE signals by bending test. From test results, we could be divided four types of failure modes of ovalization, crack initiation after ovalization, local buckling and crack initiation after local buckling. And fracture behaviors such as elastic region, yielding region, plastic deformation region and crack progress region could be evaluated by AE counts, accumulative counts and time-frequency analysis during bending test. The result of the frequency range is expected to be basic data that can inspect plants in real-time.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.83-89
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• 2021

The thickness of pipe can be locally reduced during operation due to wall thinning. Due to its significance on structural integrity, many non-destructive detecting techniques and assessment methods are available. In this study, the elastic bending compliance of local wall-thinned pipe is presented in terms of the wall thinning geometry: wall thinning depth, circumferential angle and longitudinal length. Elastic finite element (FE) analysis further shows that the presented equation can be used for any wall thinning shape. The proposed solution differs from FE results by less than 6% for all cases analyzed. The bending compliance increases linearly with increasing longitudinal thinning length and non-linearly with increasing thinning angle and depth.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.357-362
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• 2001

The pipe fracture tests were performed on 102mm-Sch.80 carbon steel pipe with various local wall thinning shapes, in order to understand failure behavior of thinned pipe. Pipe specimens were subjected to monotonic bending moment, using 4-points loading system, under internally pressurized condition. From the results of experiment, the failure mode, load carrying capacity, and deformability of local wall thinning pipe were investigated. Failure mode of thinned pipe depended on magnitude of internal pressure and thinning length as well as loading direction and thinning depth and angle. The variation in load carrying capacity and deformability of thinned pipe with length of thinned area was determined by stress type appled to thinning region and circumferential thinning angle. Also, the effect of internal pressure on failure behavior was dependent on failure mode of thinned pipe, and it promoted crack occurrence and mitigated local buckling at thinned area.